Tuesday, November 29, 2016

A Walk To Remember

November 30, 2016

The area where we live is very hilly.  Just across the road is a lovely park with lots of walking routes, hills galore and a monument to the father of the Thai navy at the top.  This View Point hill is a good place to get a view of the entire waterfront.  Just beyond this hill is a second hill, commonly referred to as Big Buddha Hill for the huge golden Buddha statue that greets many visitors.

Atop View Point Hill

Big Buddha Hill
I had gone walking a couple of times on View Point hill, but was a bit uncomfortable alone with the packs of stray dogs patrolling the roads there.  Then finally, a few weeks ago, I met another woman living in our building; she is a Ford wife from Argentina, and was willing to let me join her on her morning walks.

Her regular route was much more adventurous than anything I had done on my own.  She walked over View Point Hill, then circled Big Buddha Hill as well.  I was happy to see a new part of the "neighborhood," and glad to have company along the way.

The walk is grueling for one as out of shape as me.  Sometimes it feels like the entire walk is uphill!  I'm sure I wouldn't have pushed myself so far if I was on my own.  I am a dripping, red-faced, ugly mess by the time we return from our hour walk, and am often stiff and achy for the day.  But it feels good to be out and moving.  I had been doing exercise videos on Youtube pretty faithfully, but this was a whole new level of hurt...in a good way...at least that's what I keep telling myself.

We have been walking together three times a week for just over two weeks, but now my walking companion has gone back to Argentina for some weeks.  The challenge will be to get myself out the door when no one is waiting for me.  I do feel more confident to walk alone now - there are always plenty of other people walking or jogging.

I've started to recognize a few regulars out there.  One man in particular stands out;  I've started thinking of him as the mayor of the hill.  He's an older British (I think) gentleman, usually walking with a Thai woman.  He reminds me a bit of Frank Morgan, who played the Wizard in the Wizard of Oz, mostly because of his kindly voice.  He always encourages us as he passes - "Hellooo!  You're doing great!"

Today was my first time to do the circuit alone, and I allowed myself to stop for pictures along the way, so I could share some of the scenery.  Here's hoping for a sustained determination to keep going!

no touch, no talk, no eye contact -
thank-you, Caesar Millan

ever-present construction


flags along the entrance to Big Buddha Hill

Passed this for several days before I noticed it


glad to be at the top heading down!


group of locals gather to exercise together -
this plaza is popular for group exercise

When hauling yourself up the hill isn't enough,
some strap on a tire and drag it behind -
yowza

always cute puppies to distract
me from the battle

Never knew this place had a name

My favorite fish - at the top of
the last hill



Smiling security guards and one-eyed dog
always waiting to welcome us back home
P.S.  Happy Birthday to my favorite husband, my one and only true loveđź’“ Thanks for sharing this adventure with me!


Wednesday, November 23, 2016

Gather Together in My Name

November 19-20, 2016

A huge gathering was planned in Pattaya to honor the king.  On our way to church late Saturday afternoon, we saw scores of people out on the streets wearing all black; many wore T-shirts with the Thai symbol for the number nine in reference to Rama IX.  Nearly all traffic was headed toward Beach Rd., the opposite direction to which we were going.  Noticeably fewer vehicles were in the church parking lot when we arrived.

The congregation prayed for the soul of the king to join our Father in heaven during the petitions, a fascinating and inclusive gesture by Christians living in a Buddhist nation.  I wonder what government officials would think.  I would hope they would see it as being respectful, like the portrait of the king that sits in the sanctuary, draped in black.  He was everyone's king, after all.

When I got back to our condo, Tim said he had heard beautiful music and singing while standing out on our balcony.  Wish I could have heard it. Thousands of voices were raised in song to demonstrate their affection and mourning.  Pictures from the media showed the magnitude of the gathering:



Thousands of Thais and foreigners held candles - the symbol in
the middle is the Thai symbol for the number nine

Nine is also the most auspicious number in Thai culture

The singing carried all the way to our condo in the top right-hand corner of the picture
  The next day, we gathered with nine friends from five countries on four continents to celebrate a traditional American Thanksgiving - friends from Japan, Argentina, Russia and Thailand joined we two Americans.  A Scottish chef, whose culinary talents we have enjoyed on several occasions, agreed to prepare a feast for us to share with our friends at the Blue Olive, his current creative space.  We put out place cards to minimize communication issues and insure everyone's enjoyment, although everyone speaks English quite well.









Tim welcomed everyone and let them know how thankful we were for their friendship.  He raised a toast to all our homelands, and we each shared the traditional toast from our home countries - "Cheers, Chok Dee Ka (Thai), Kan Pie (Japanese), Ura (Russian), and Salud (Argentina)."  The chef threw in the Scottish cheer, "Slainte Mhath" for good measure, and Mick shared his favorite "Prost!"

I demonstrated our traditional blessing before meals, and asked others to share their own.  Then we enjoyed a lovely feast, starting with a delicious lentil soup.  Several side dishes were then brought to the table to be shared family-style, including many vegetables and a delicious cranberry sauce.  Oohs and aahs serenaded the appearance of the beautiful, golden-brown turkey.  Most had never seen one in person, their only experience being from American movies like Home Alone.



Everyone wanted a picture with the star of the show - Mr. Turkey






Thankfully, the chef expertly carved the turkey at the table - this was always my least-favorite job.  Someone asked what kind of music would traditionally accompany such a dinner, and I confessed it was usually the sound of a football game on TV in the other room!  One couple brought us a lovely gift - they said they saw on Ellen that you are supposed to bring a gift for the host.

The meal ended with pumpkin pie topped with a delicious spiced whipped cream, and some Grand Marnier.  I hope everyone enjoyed the evening as much as Tim and I - it was an honor and a pleasure to be able to share our tradition with such lovely friends.



Wishing all our American family and friends a blessed and peaceful Thanksgiving!

P.S.  Happy Sweet Sixteen to my sweet niece, Sarah Grace!

 

Thursday, November 17, 2016

A Festival of Lights

November 15, 2016

At the end of October, our Indian friends celebrated Dewali, the festival of lights.  Tim received a nice greeting from his staff in India.

May Deepawali, the festival of lights, illuminate your life 
and bring the shower of glory, prosperity, health and peace!
Now it is the end of thirty-day official mourning period for the Late His Majesty King Buhmibol Adulyadej.  (The government just announced that "the Great," Maha in Thai, will be added to his name after the royal funeral rites have been completed.)  Wearing black is no longer a requirement, and festivities may resume.  Of course, many are choosing to continue wearing black, either for the one-hundred day period of chanting by the monks, or even for an entire year.  Government workers are required to continue for the entire year.  Tributes and memorials continue to take place throughout the region - some elaborately planned, some quite spontaneous.  Another big tribute is planned for this Saturday evening on Beach Road in Pattaya.

 Ford employees gathered to pay tribute to the late king

a tribute in a small roadside lot
The ending of the thirty days coincided with Thailand's Loy Krathong festival, the festival of lights and goddess of the waters.  They were celebrating Loy Krathong the day we arrived in Thailand to start our assignment, so it is a significant day for us.  It was a very subdued affair this year.  We didn't participate, but friends went to Beach Road Monday night for the activities.   No fireworks or Chinese lanterns this year, just launching the krathongs into the water.  These little "rafts" are made from a slice of a banana tree trunk beautifully decorated with flowers and leaves, incense and candles.  I think most Thais grow up learning how to make them, and the results are beautiful.

Thanks to Mika for this lovely picture!
Flowers are a huge part of Thai culture, and are used in every kind of celebration or ritual.  Our church is always full of beautiful, colorful flowers, the way our church at home might be for Easter.  On the feast of our patron saint, St. Nikolaus, the church was scrubbed to a shine, and flowers completely covered the front of the altar.

flowers in ordinary time

The altar completely covered in flowers for our feast day
Just a day later, the entire globe basked in the light of the brilliant Super Moon.  Our condo affords us views of both the eastern and western skies.  So I took pictures of the moon in the evening, then was awaken by the bright light of the moon shining in my face just after five a.m.  My pictures were not so clear, but I have enjoyed the pictures being shared from around the world - just stunning.

Night view

As morning breaks





Wednesday, November 9, 2016

Humor Me

November 9, 2016

(Because God knows we could all use a little humor the day after Election Day...)

quotesgram.com


Thai humor - sometimes it's a wonderful, perplexing thing.

Our driver, now quite comfortable in his role, has no problem joking with us.  When he makes a joke that clearly makes us laugh, he repeats the joke, often many times over.  He was amused when Tim ordered a "long coffee" from McDonald's once, and after waiting some time at the window, got a tiny, little dixie-cup-sized coffee.  He said, "Boss, you get long coffee...because you wait long time!"  This clever little joke comes up again and again.

Tim commented once what a nice, easy job a security guard had - one that just rolls a little gate back and forth across the car entrance all day.  Now, whenever we see one such security guard, our driver never fails to say, "Boss, new job for you!"  He frequently refers to drinking beer as "getting exercise," showing how he has to lift his arm up and down.  Or if someone sneezes, he says, "I have shower already," and sniffs his armpit to see if he needs a shower.  Ha. Ha.

You know by now that the Thai word for a white foreigner is Farang.  The word for France is Farang Sed. And the word Sed means to be poor, or have no money.  Anytime I use the term Farang Sed, he loves to turn it around and say Sed Farang, then laughs at his joke.  Never need the radio in the car - always plenty of entertainment!

Sometimes he doesn't realize he's being funny.  One time he said the word "bamboo" in what sounded like an unmistakable Texas accent.  We said he sounded like a cowboy, but he said he doesn't like cowboys.  When we asked why, he said, because "they never shower."  That's an interesting take on cowboys; he must have seen that in a movie or something.

Ronald McDonald performing a wai 
My Thai teacher occasionally likes to share a joke with me.  He announces, "Oh!  I have a joke for you!"  Here are a couple of good ones:

I had just learned the phrase, Bpai Lery, which means, "Don't hesitate to go."  There is a province in northern Thailand called Lery, or Loei (the "r" sound is soft to non-existent in Thai), and Bpai means "to go." So you could be telling someone politely to go ahead, while basically also telling them to go far away.  

Another word play joke: a Wai is the sign of respect Thai's give by placing their palms together under their nose.  The word for water is Nahm.  And Wai Nahm means to swim.  So when someone asks a Thai to go for a swim, he could be funny and Wai to the swimming pool!   Hilarious, right?





Finally, I saw this sign on the back of a local internet provider company's truck.  I think it was an attempt at humor - you be the judge:


Remember, laugh and the world laughs with you.  Cry and you cry alone.  Laughter is the best medicine, yada, yada, yada.

Saturday, November 5, 2016

Small Wonder

November 5, 2016

And still they gazed, and still the wonder grew

 - Oliver Goldsmith, The Deserted Village

Let me retreat from the grandness of late, to rediscover and appreciate
Little things. - Liz Wagner


My friend was in a bind for someone to watch her little one, so I stepped in.  Can't remember the last time I babysat; my days as an official daycare-giver are long past.  I met them at their condo, and her daughter's first comment was, "Why did you cut your hair?"  That's an existential question...

My diminutive companion and I walked to the new mall just across the alley from their condo.  Our first stop was the Coffee Club, where she enjoyed her free "baby-cino," and the waitress asked if she was my granddaughter(!) She colored a picture, and confidently asked the waitress in Thai for another colored crayon.  This from a four-year-old native Japanese speaker who chatted with me in English as well - smart cookie! We colored our black-and-white drink coasters.  I said she should bring them both home, but she insisted I take mine for "my friend."



The mall was packed with kids, the first few days of the three-week(?) fall break for Thai students.  We went up to the playland area, but her membership card had expired just days earlier, so we just walked around the mall, playing "Which cake do you want for your birthday?" at a shop that had strange, spongy, cake-shaped key rings.  We stopped at the gigantic Pikachu for a picture - she looked so tiny in comparison.  We enjoyed our afternoon together.





Life is somewhat subdued here since the king's passing - no loud music coming from the ubiquitous beer bars, most Thais wearing black.  The newspaper reported some kind souls were giving away free black T-shirts for needy Thais who couldn't afford to buy one.  A few places were also offering dying stations where people to bring their clothes to be dyed in big vats.  For those who couldn't find black, or had to wear a uniform for work, they were allowed to wear black armbands or ribbons.  I haven't been able to find any black ribbon in the stores (everything black is in short supply), so my one black shirt is getting lots of wear - blah.








Other Little Things:

Last week Tim and I were at Avenue Mall in the evening, and we passed one of the "bar cars" parked on the plaza.  These customized VW buses park in the evenings, setting up plastic tables and chairs for their patrons.  This particular bar car had a cute display on their counter:



At the pool last weekend, I noticed a little snail with shell, inching along the cement.  It struck me as the quintessential version of a snail.



The little, but relatively giant, moth was perched on the wall as I passed the security desk on my way to church last Saturday.  It was so big and intimidating-looking, I was afraid to get close enough for a good picture.  I'm certain it could have put my eye out had it flown into my face!  Another moth of average size was made to look giant by a trick of forced perspective.  Beware!  And a commonly seen butterfly perches on a flower outside our condo.





An item that definitely belongs in this "little things" post is one of the tiny Buddha amulets that monks hand out to people for good fortune.  I may have talked about these before, but I wanted to illustrate just how tiny they really are.  I dare not remove it from it's plastic sleeve, or I would surely lose it.



Finally, I must share the simple beauty of the little plumeria, or frangipani blossoms.  Their trees line the pool area, and can be found all over Thailand.  I so wish I could include their delicious scent as well.

Another interesting flower spotted on the hill,
the Thai pink powder puff flower



P.S. Congratulations, Cubbies fans!